I know that one or two people on this forum have made end grain cutting boards. :D I have started making them recently and, in spite of my best efforts, I always end up with strips at slightly differing heights. I have flattened the two faces with my thickness planer, but that causes too much chip out. I have also sanded with a drum sander which works great, but it is slow and uses abrasive faster than I like.

Therefore, my question is what do all the seasoned pros here use to get their boards flat?TIA

The router sled is a good idea, but you will still need to do some sanding.

I made a bunch last xmas. Did a little experimenting and found the router sled to be the most effective. I then used my home made drum sander with 100grit paper to start the sanding (and cleanup the router marks with 1 light pass), followed with a ROS 120, 150 and final at 220. Using the drum sander to thickness sand did chew up paper, and I found myself feeding the boards in 5+ times/board to get them flat. End grain is tough stuff.

I bought a 1 1/4 mortising bit (I think it’s an Amana bit) that makes quick work using the router sled.

I’ll be doing more boards this year for xmas. These are additive to build, and seem to be a “right of passage” on this site. Some really beautiful boards here.

A well-waxed, sharp, low-angle jack plane can make pretty quick work of an end-grain board. I just did a batch of three this way. It’s a bit of a workout, but some frequent honing of the blade can really help. I like that there are zero material costs with this method (once you get over the $200 hump for the plane).

I send a board through the planer…...a 13×24 1.5 thick maple end grain….and it shot across the room and into the wall and shattered. Luckily I wasn’t standing in front of the planer like I usual do or I would of taken the impact to the family jewels. :)

Anyhoo, my $0.02. I remove the squeeze out with a belt sander then on through the DS with a 36 grit belt. Proceed as usual, very light cuts (usually 10+ with each grit step). Let the board cool if it starts to feel warm, end grain will easily warp when hot.

Splint, yes that board is history. Thanks for asking about the shutters. Today I finished 12 shutters that will cover 3 windows. I will hang them tomorrow. Once they are done, I will have 5 windows completed and 7 to go. Unfortunately, 5 of the remaining will each require 8 shutters each. Ugh!

Art – I’m curious as to the differing heights. Are you meaning that the slices are of different heights as you cut them on the table saw – or is it that your final glue up allowed one or two slices to slide above the others?